The Shadow of Doubt podcast produced by The Australian caused a 10-month delay in the child sex abuse trial of former physical education teacher William Rob Gilfillan in Victoria, court records confirmed this Sunday (11). Justice Michael O’Connell pushed jury empanelment back from 1 February 2025 to 1 December 2025 after judicial transcripts revealed that online discussions triggered by the audio series compromised the presumption of innocence.
Gilfillan faced five charges of indecent assault and sexual penetration of two schoolgirls under the age of 16 during the 1980s in Gippsland. Because Victorian court rules protect the right to an impartial trial, jurors were barred from learning about his previous criminal record in New South Wales, where he was sentenced in 2016 to 48 years in prison with a 36-year non-parole period for raping and torturing his daughter, Jess Denham.
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Defense argued Shadow of Doubt fueled prejudice online
The eight-episode series released on 1 March 2023 by investigative journalist Richard Guilliatt questioned the 2016 conviction, citing jailhouse phone interviews with Gilfillan and his former wife Karen, who both stated, “We’re innocent … these things just did not happen.” While the reporting complied with legal suppression orders by withholding the family’s names, details regarding their background in elite athletics and education enabled members of the public to identify them across internet forums.
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On the eve of the original trial date in early 2025, defense barrister Paul Kounnas asked the court for a permanent stay of proceedings, arguing that his client’s criminal record had become immediately accessible online. “The podcast is the first link that comes up on typing the accused’s name into Google, even though he is not identified by name in that podcast,” Kounnas told the court. “The podcast is one called Shadow of Doubt … and it details the record prison sentences received in this matter and alludes to the nature of the ‘depraved abuse’ that the trial was subject of.”
Kounnas told the court that public interest had been “inflamed to such a degree by the podcast, which I understand was reasonably high profile, that it’s fuelled the internet flames, so to speak.” Crown prosecutor Sandra MacDougall acknowledged that publicity surrounding the broadcast had “created an irredeemable prejudice to the conduct of this trial.”
Justice Michael O’Connell ordered internet clean-up before trial
Justice O’Connell refused to permanently halt the case but ordered the prosecution to seek the removal of prejudicial material published on social platforms and websites before a jury could be assembled. “I’m very troubled by the continuing position where these comments remain on the internet notwithstanding that, for weeks now we’ve identified a very significant problem potentially affecting the fairness of the trial and nothing’s been done it seems to resolve the problem,” O’Connell stated before ordering the 10-month postponement.
Victorian conviction and prison inquiry into Richard Guilliatt
When the delayed trial proceeded in December 2025, the jury convicted Gilfillan on all five counts of sexual abuse involving the two students at a Traralgon school. Suppression orders lapsed on 24 December 2025, allowing the Australian press to name him publicly. On 16 June 2026, the County Court of Victoria sentenced Gilfillan to seven and a half years in prison, ordering the term to run concurrently with his 48-year New South Wales sentence.
The fallout also reached the media industry. Guilliatt resigned from the Walkley Awards judging board in July 2026 after the foundation awarded reporting by journalist Nina Funnell that highlighted the distress caused to the victim by the podcast. Corrective Services NSW initiated an internal investigation into how Guilliatt secured unauthorized telephone interviews with Gilfillan inside prison, and the agency has not yet made public the final findings of that inquiry.
